Scrutiny breeds resentment on Rockford police force, union says

Saturday

Aug 23, 2014 at 12:00 PMAug 23, 2014 at 2:39 PM

An aggressive young Rockford Police Department officer, an amputee with one arm and a complaint of a loud TV.

That recipe cost Rockford taxpayers $205,000. The amputee, now a former Rockford resident, sued in federal court for excessive force after the officer pepper-sprayed him and hauled him off to jail on Jan. 9, 2006, over a ticket for noise.

After years of legal maneuvering, the case was settled in 2012. It proved a costly incident even though neither the city nor the officer ever admitted any wrongdoing. And it was one factor in convincing Rockford Police Chief Chet Epperson of the need for a system to oversee the types and levels of force officers use to make arrests.

Those policies — which officers say make them feel as if they’re constantly being second-guessed — are a major reason for the fractured relationship between police administrators and rank-and-file officers.

Officers have bristled under strict practices for monitoring and correcting police behaviors, most put in place since Epperson was named chief in April 2006. The policies include a standardized use-of-force report and a computerized early warning system designed to alert supervisors to potential problems.

The police union says that reasonable oversight is understandable, but that scrutiny of Rockford officers is stifling — and could make officers hesitant on the job.

“It’s almost an overbearing micromanagement system, and it’s not just on force issues. It’s on almost every aspect of the department,” said Terry Peterson, a retired police officer and president of the union.

“The idea there has been a blanket misuse of force or lack of oversight is just a crock. What they have done is created an environment now where the guys actually when they should be using force are not using adequate force.”

City officials, however, contend that daily headlines from Ferguson, Missouri, where violence and looting erupted after a police officer shot and killed an unarmed teenager, illustrate the importance of police accountability.

And they point out that excessive force complaints have fallen sharply under Epperson’s leadership. There were 43 complaints of excessive force in 2006, compared with just 22 in 2013 and none so far in 2014.

Epperson maintains that if he doesn’t police the Police Department, someone else will. Other law enforcement agencies have been placed under U.S. Department of Justice monitoring after failing to provide adequate oversight. That includes departments in Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Cincinnati and New Orleans, where there were allegations of civil rights violations including the use of force, illegal stops and seizures, and biased policing.

“We have a robust management oversight system that is able to manage the use of force and at the same time is able to provide constitutional policing to the residents of Rockford,” Epperson said.

Epperson’s tense relationship with the union has been in the spotlight since Peterson and the union asked the Rockford Board of Fire and Police Commissioners to proceed with a hearing on whether to discipline Epperson for undermining officers’ authority during an October welfare check at the home of NAACP Rockford President Lloyd Johnston.

Excessive force claimed

Paris Gardner’s right arm was amputated in 1981 after he contracted meningitis in college. Because he only had one arm and was confused, he was slow to comply when officer Benjamin Johnson appeared outside his apartment in January 2006, barking at him to get on the ground.

Earlier that evening, Johnson had warned Gardner about a loud noise complaint. Johnson ordered Gardner to put his hands up and get down on the pavement.

The officer would later explain that he didn’t want Gardner to get away without receiving a notice to appear in court on the noise complaint. Although a noise complaint is not a jailable offense, Johnson said that Gardner was resisting arrest and jerked away when he took Gardner by the arm.

Gardner told a different story during his deposition in federal court. He said Johnson had charged at him, yelling at him to get on the ground.

“I’m trying to show him, you know, ‘Officer, I can’t comply with that. I only have one ... .’ And before I could finish that sentence, he ran up and grabbed me and sprayed what I assume was Mace or pepper spray or whatever, some kind of chemical, in my eyes,” Gardner said.

Johnson applied the spray within inches of Gardner’s face and in a crossing pattern. Gardner was slammed to the ground.

“I was just kind of grasping at my face because the pain was unbearable,” Gardner said. “I was just shocked, I was horrified, I was scared.”

His pleas for treatment of his burning, swelling eyes and shoulder injuries were largely ignored as he was taken to jail.

When the case finally was settled in 2012, it became Rockford’s largest excessive force settlement in the past five years.

Then and now

Aside from documenting what happened in a standard police report, Johnson, a young officer in 2006 who remains a Rockford police officer today, was not required to fill out an additional use-of-force report explaining his actions.

No specific requirement existed to inform supervisors he had used force. And there was no standardized system in place for his supervisors and commanders to review his actions with an eye toward discipline or additional training.

It wasn’t until Gardner filed an excessive force complaint that the officer was asked about it by internal affairs. He was exonerated. The only feedback he got was from a supervisor who suggested that, in the future, he should park around the block before investigating a noise complaint to avoid giving a suspect the chance to adjust the volume.

Fast-forward to 2014.

If that incident occurred today, the officer would be required to file a supplemental use-of-force report using a computer program called Blue Team. The report is reviewed by supervisors, police tactics and training officers and, if serious enough, commanders.

The program includes a dashboard that alerts supervisors and commanders to the types and frequency of force officers are using, among other police activities.

The dashboard turns from green to red after an officer has been involved in a threshhold number of pursuits, use-of-force incidents, crashes or complaints. That triggers a review but doesn’t mean an officer did anything wrong.

For many veteran officers, the heightened supervision has been an adjustment, Assistant Deputy Chief Mike Dalke said.

The system is not intended to be punitive, he said, but to identify problems before they get out of hand and to direct training where needed.

It’s also designed to protect officers, Dalke said.

If an officer breaks a hand during a fight with an unruly suspect, he might need more training on options beside punches, such as palm stuns, knee strikes or pain compliance. Or if a suspect resists and sustains an injury, the officer may need additional training in how to avoid inflicting such injuries.

“We have a very comprehensive force management policy and more-so than most organizations,” Dalke said. “I know on any given day who is using force and the type of force used. There is a lot of oversight and making sure they are using the right approach.”

The reviews occur even when no excessive force complaint is lodged. Sometimes the officer involved receives additional training or mentoring.

Police brass insist the reviews are not intended to second-guess officers, who are trained to make snap decisions regarding the appropriate level of force. They compare the review process to what a football team does after a game.

“What do they do on Monday?” Epperson said. “They look at the game film. They go back, they make the corrections and they make adjustments. We are going to do that as a Police Department.”

Oversight or overkill?

Rockford police estimate that force is used in less than 1 percent of all arrests.

The vast majority of times the force used is non-lethal and is not investigated by an outside agency, leaving it to police supervisors and commanders to review. What police brass view as remediation, counseling and training, officers seem to view as punishment and discipline.

Commanders can recall few if any cases in which a use-of-force review resulted in a suspension and none that led to an officer’s firing.

Peterson, however, said the reviews are fine when used the way they were intended, but too often seem like a “fishing expedition” in which supervisors look for a reason to discipline an officer.

“We have no problem with oversight when oversight is reasonable,” Peterson said. “We would say the oversight and the micromanaging that goes on is overkill and unreasonable.”

Survey says

In 2013, Rockford police officers participated in anonymous surveys conducted by the National Police Research Platform, a group of academic researchers studying police agencies across the nation. About 40 percent of the department, 110 officers, participated in the survey.

Among the results: Just 15 percent of officers in Rockford feel the department’s disciplinary process is fair. Only 15 percent of officers feel the Rockford Police Department has a “very good” relationship with residents, and 55 percent feel burned out from work two or more times each month.

They do not feel the department rewards those who do a good job.

The survey results offer an opportunity to improve relations between police brass, officers and the public, said Dennis Rosenbaum, professor of criminology, law and justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“The public wants input, fairness and to be treated well,” Rosenbaum said. “Police officers are the same. They want procedural fairness in the way they are disciplined and the way they are supervised. This is an opportunity for an organization bold enough to come forward and be a part of this to exponentially leap ahead of others by listening and being on the cutting edge of management.”

Rockford was one of eight police departments in Illinois and 100 law enforcement agencies nationwide chosen to participate in the research project. It’s based at UIC but involves researchers from several major universities.

Demand accountability

Having systems in place to manage police officers when it comes to use of force is critical to protecting the rights of residents and for preventing costly legal problems, said Edwin Yohnka, director of communications and public policy for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

Police commanders need data to identify problems, Yohnka said.

“There are all sort of costs and problems that exist when you allow these things to go on unchecked,” Yohnka said. “A more thorough, a more open and more accountable system of responding to complaints of excessive force, police abuse of power in one way or another is something all of us ought to demand and expect from the law enforcement officers who serve us.”

Jeff Kolkey: 815-987-1374; jkolkey@rrstar.com; @jeffkolkey

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